Inside the campaign to be an EPA regional administrator eenews.net - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from eenews.net Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Biden has committed to $5 billion for Superfund site clean-ups, as the University of Houston research establishes a clear connection between life expectancy reductions and a proximity to these sites. It is a first good test of Biden’s promise of environmental justice for marginalized communities.
During February’s Freeze in Texas, Refineries and Petrochemical Plants Released Almost 4 Million Pounds of Extra Pollutants
The companies mounted their standard “affirmative defense,” and environmentalists doubt Texas regulators will hold them accountable. Communities of color around Houston were disproportionately impacted.
By Aman Azhar
March 15, 2021
Ships are docked along refinery facilities at the Houston Ship Channel, part of the Port of Houston, on March 6, 2019 in Houston, Texas. Credit: Loren Elliot/AFP via Getty Images
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For Vicki Cruz, a social worker who lives in the Magnolia Park section of Houston, her health situation couldn’t have gotten a whole lot worse since she came down with Covid-19 over Christmas.
Overall, this encompassed nearly 200 facilities across 54 counties. Each facility reported releases of toxic chemicals between Feb. 11 and March 9. Roughly one-fifth of the airborne pollution occurred in the Houston area.
One industrial facility near Beaumont, Texas, reported emitting 262,522 pounds of methane in less than two hours on Feb. 16.
“Texas is not ready for increasingly extreme weather, and the state’s failure to prepare is hurting communities, especially those near high-risk chemical facilities,” said Elena Craft, senior director for climate and health at Environmental Defense Fund. “Air pollution compounds the health and economic harms in a state that already leads the nation in billion-dollar disasters fueled by climate change. We need government at all levels to ensure companies take the necessary steps to guard against these disasters and protect their neighbors.”
3 5 million pounds of extra pollution released during the winter storm in Texas, reports say click2houston.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from click2houston.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.